


Trapped

by TheMikeWheelers (jasongracefully)



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-02
Updated: 2017-05-02
Packaged: 2018-10-27 03:02:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10800339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jasongracefully/pseuds/TheMikeWheelers
Summary: Stuck in an elevator with Mike wasn't exactly an ideal situation for El





	Trapped

Eleven and small spaces didn't exactly mesh together. Eleven and small spaces _and Mike_ , well, that was a bigger problem. 

It wasn't that she didn't like being around Mike. In fact, her real problem was that she liked being around him just a bit too much. El couldn't control the way her heart started to beat faster and butterflies erupted inside her every time she even _looked_ at Mike-- and she hated it. 

He was her _friend_ , she constantly told herself. You don't think about how cute your friend’s freckles are, or how much you'd _really_ like to kiss them right now. Mike was a friend, and El continued to yell at herself to accept that. 

Most of the time she thought she was doing a good job of that, she thought she could talk to him and hang out and not let her mind wander into not-friend territory. But then last week she found herself staring at him for just a second too long, and thinking way too much about how she'd like to continue getting lost in his eyes, when the alarms went off in her head that _she wasn't acting like a friend._

Since then, El had been trying her very best to ignore Mike at all costs. She would limit as much time alone with him as possible, at least until she was able to work this out, until she could be near Mike without needing to constantly remind herself that he was just a friend. 

Most of the time, that was easy. Mike was in school for the majority of the day, so El didn't really see him. But then the weekend hit and it became a lot harder. Her and the boys were off to Indianapolis to compete in the Indiana Science Fair, and El knew that her time away from Mike would be limited. 

And if that wasn't bad enough, all she wanted was to go up to her hotel room, when the elevator got stuck, with just her and Mike in it. 

Honestly, El would have rather taken the stairs up to their room on the fifth floor, but she knew if she did that then Mike would have insisted on coming with her, and something about the idea of him going out of his way like that only made El’s butterflies grow worse. So she stepped inside the elevator, closing her eyes so she couldn't see how small it really was, and taking deep breaths in and out, telling herself to stay calm until the doors opened. 

Then she felt the elevator stop and her eyes flew open, ready for the doors to push out and let her out of this hellish contraption. But the doors weren't opening, and she looked over to see the concerned expression on Mike’s face. 

“Mike, what's happening?” She asked, already fearing she knew the answer. 

“Don't freak out, but I think the elevator just got stuck.”

Anything he said after that, Eleven didn't hear. As soon as her fear was confirmed she slammed her eyes shut, slowly backing up until she felt the wall, then sliding down onto the ground. She felt as her heart beat even faster, and her breaths became shallow and quick. Mike was on the emergency phone, she assumed talking to some maintenance worker. But it didn't matter who he was on the phone with, because they were trapped and she could already feel the walls closing in. 

Mike slammed down the phone when he finished, rushing up next to her, “El? El, are you okay?” 

She didn't answer, just trying to choke back tears. They were just stuck, she was _not_ going to cry, she did not want to embarrass herself like that. 

“Hey, we’ll be out of here soon, and everything is gonna be okay. Do you hear me? Everything's gonna be okay.” Mike squatted down next to her, his face so close to hers it wasn't making it any easier for El. 

He went to wrap his arm around her, but El pushed it aside. _God_ , she wanted him to hold her, to hug her and squeeze her until she could no longer focus on the four walls around her, but she couldn't do it. She didn't trust herself to let Mike hug her, for him to get any closer to her than he already was. _Stay in friend territory_ , she kept telling herself, she was breathing heavily enough already without Mike right next to her. 

Mike looked slightly hurt that she had pushed his arm away, but he brushed it off, “Come on, El, breath with me. In and out.”

He started to take deep breaths, and tried to get El to do it with him. She closed her eyes and tried to focus, to think about anything other than the walls closing in or the fact that Mike was so close she could feel his breath on her. 

_In and out._

_In and out._

_Deep breaths, in and out._

El tried to concentrate, but she couldn't. She couldn't focus on breathing when she felt like she had already used up all the oxygen in the tiny elevator, and she _definitely_ couldn't focus when Mike's face was still so close to hers. 

“El, look at me.” Cautiously, she opened her eyes and stared over at Mike, sharing a glance with him that make her heart flutter. His brown eyes were so focused on her, she felt like they could see into her soul, like they knew everything about her. She hated just how _right_ staring at Mike felt. How she could just get lost in the galaxies in his irises, how even when it felt like the world was collapsing around her and he was making her heart speed up, he still made everything feel _better_ , “You can do this, I know you can. Just breath with me, okay? Focus on me.” 

El nodded and continued staring at Mike, feeling her face start to heat up in the process. _In and out, in and out._ She took a deep breath every time Mike did, and let it out with him. This went on for a few minutes, until she finally felt like the room had stopped spinning. 

Mike smiled when he saw she was finally breathing on her own; he leaned over to give her hand a quick squeeze, “Are you feeling better?” 

El didn't answer him, just looking down for a few seconds, unable to comprehend how Mike was somehow always there to help her. She looked back up at him in disbelief, “How are you so good to me?” 

“What do you mean?” Mike's face began to burn up, a cherry-red blush sweeping over his cheeks. 

“You always know what to do when I'm upset. You're always there for me. How are you so kind all the time?” 

“You bring out the best in me, El.” Mike looked down, not wanting to meet her eyes, “Whenever you're with me I just want to help you and do my best to make you happy. I'm better when I'm with you.” 

He lifted his head up, meeting her gaze once more. El could feel just how fast her heart was beating, like Mike had reached into her chest himself and was now grasping on her heart. 

_Let him have it_ , she thought. If he held her heart in his hands, she didn't care. She trusted him to do whatever he wanted with it. 

His face was moving closer to hers, she was so close now she could count every freckle on his face. It felt as if for every freckle she counted, another butterfly formed in her stomach, but she kept leaning in. 

They were only millimeters apart, and El still couldn't wrap her mind around what was happening. This was _definitely_ not something friends did, was she really about to cross the line that she had spent so long terrified of? 

With their faces just about to touch, El swallowed a gulp, about to take the dive into uncharted waters, when a sudden beeping startled them away from each other. 

The elevator had started up again, it was finally moving. El wanted to feel disappointed that her moment with Mike was interrupted, but she couldn't, not when she felt this relieved. In a minute, they would finally be off this death contraption. She let out a relieved laugh and stood up. Mike soon followed suit, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, not wanting to meet her eyes. 

The doors finally opened and El ran into the hotel hallway. She wanted to dance, to sing, to scream out to the world that she was _free_. 

But with her newfound freedom, there was something else she wanted to do even more. Even before the elevator incident, El was being held back by herself, but now she was freeing herself, not holding anything back. 

She spun around to see Mike getting off the elevator himself. Grabbing onto his shirt collar, she pulled him down towards her, pushing her lips onto his. 

El felt him smile into the kiss, and she couldn't help but beam back. 

_Yeah_ , she thought, _This is a lot better than being friends._


End file.
